​ROI: An Occult Perspective

G.D.O'Bradovich III​December 9, 2015​

"Occultism...very seldom works in harmony...with business aptitude in the things of ordinary life..."- A.E. Waite​

We have written about Occult Finance [vide] and we continue our investigation into the subject of ROI or return on investment. “Return on investment” is defined as “the benefit (or return) of an investment ... divided by the cost of the investment ... the result is expressed as a percentage”. As an exercise in financial definitions, we are concerned with money, but human motivations may not always be so easily examined as a corporate balance sheet. The majority of people understand certain expenses as a return, whereas the expenditure is, in fact, for entertainment purposes only, that is, consumption, not investment-they prefer to buy video games and gaming systems, instead of long term investments, such as stocks and bonds. As economists justly differentiate- investment and consumption are not synonymous, although both are expenditures.

We recall an incident regarding a friend of the website, Francisco d'Anconia (Francisco to his friends), who heavily invested in a foreign venture, only to have the entire operation nationalized and, while various investors agonized over the catastrophic loss, Francisco was amused by the nationalization. Although millions of dollars had been spent on the Mexican venture to open a copper mine and establish a town, after nationalization government officials were surprised to discover that copper could not be economically extracted and the town was constructed with substandard materials. We use this story to demonstrate that people have different motivations and goals and, ultimately, we should not expect that everyone understands the world within the sharply defined parameters of accounting and financial concepts. Therefore, based on long and painful experience, we do not expect people in their private lives to behave as professional financial advisers. We will attempt to demonstrate that investments or expenditures may not meet either the stated or, in many instances, unstated goals of the investor or benefactor and while these goals may not be met, we are not to understand the expenses as a loss, per se, although the capital is no longer in their possession. As Frater Fred wrote, “Knowledge has no obligation to ignorance.”

The first entry on my curriculum vitae dates from August, 2012 and my website has at least 616 pages. We can roughly calculate that my output has been 200 pages per year, or about four pages per week. Of course, we do not value all pages equally. If we assume that one percent of the pages are profound, then this total amounts to six pages that are inspired and if we assume that nine percent of the pages are good, then this total is 56 pages, and the remaining ninety percent are average to poor (including humor and various “fluff” pages), then the remaining pages total 557. Non-research efforts, such as musical compositions and arrangements are generally not considered profound, although there are “fun” pieces (“Barbie Girl”), personal works (E minor Fantasy), large scale works (“A Day in the Garden”) and compilations (“Kryptonite” and “Chasing Cars”). The following table has been provided for clarification and totals may not add up due to rounding.

Value

Percent

Approximate Number of Pages

Profound

1%

6

Good

9%

56

"Filler" and "Fluff"

90%

557

Total

100%

616

I have made every effort to include my important research before the creation of the website, so we can be reasonably assured that the site includes everything of value. “Future Projects” on the website have an indeterminate present value, some of which may or may not come to fruition, so have not been included in the preceding page totals. We maintain that the handful of profound works, if fully expanded upon, would be acceptable as doctoral dissertations or publications of academic standing. Since both the website and composition program are free to the public, certain economic theoreticians, such as Marx, would assign no economic value to either, with the unexpected result that I personally have neither contributed to any economic benefits nor created any economic values. The significance of my efforts of the preceding three years when defined in terms of economics or accounting principles amounts to naught. nada and nothing.

The decade of the 90s and the first decade of the century can be understood as my formative years into nominal Occult research, where research was furtive and not systematic and while later works can not be said to be furtive, nor can they be described as systematic. It is only with the creation of the website that I understood the potential that my works could be brought to the notice of a larger audience, whereas the results of my work were previously limited to certain individuals. Due to Apprentice Tyler's insistence or coercion that I read selected works by Fred, Plato's “Republic” and “Atlas Shrugged”, I acquired what I previously lacked- the wording to describe what I have thought and experienced during my sojourn in the world. Therefore, in regard to topics, authors and genres that I purposely avoided throughout my life, Apprentice Tyler's insistence was serendipitous, and I heartily acknowledge that I see farther, since I stand on the shoulders of my predecessors. We note that neither the purchase of many books nor my efforts to colate what I have read have any return on investment, that is, they are worthless.

As a Capricorn, we almost instinctively recognize the value of money, not as end, but as means of utility, as a purpose to some end. And to what end? If we utilize the technique of working backward from the coda of the music to its opening, or the conclusion of our research paper to its introduction, then there is only one end, although the middle has multiple opportunities. If from a young age we were aware of the meaning of death, even though we understood it as only meaning that others will be unable to meet us, then we make no apology for our path filled with unforeseen vicissitudes to that inevitable conclusion. To state that life has no meaning is nihilistic, but it is also correct. For a child, or anyone who has pondered the question - our existence is either nihilistic, generally, or absurd, specifically. I prefer not to categorically state that my life is obviously senseless or ridiculous or ludicrous, however I have no doubts that it could be perceived in this manner. Of course, as adults, we are expected to supply meaning to life, but in the artificial construct that is childhood, there are no expectations to apply value to existence, although the absurdity of our lives can be glimpsed, even at a young age. We refer the Gentle Reader who has no experience with children to ask “Why?”to the basic assumptions about life. The child cum philosopher will quickly understand that the world is full of opinions and society full of “oughts”, but there are few rational reasons for our actions, in short, the child has seen through the shadows and the cobwebs that are pervasive in our subterranean world. Fortunately, the vast majority of children grow into adults who no longer question, but accept the reality that they encounter, although, if they were to experience these inane situations in a dream, they would, we hope, awake to reality. If the vast majority should choose one of two alternatives, either hedonism or family, to provide meaning to their lives, we can not openly disparage their choice, as we only expect them to do one thing, and not always well. It seems that the majority's return on investment choices is also without value, although not lacking in potential entertainment value, not necessarily for themselves, but to dispassionate observers.

Gentle Reader, we are now closer to a position in order to determine whether the return on the hundreds thousands of dollars (unadjusted for inflation) that have been invested or expended throughout the lifetime of Yours Truly has been superior, average, mediocre or negative. However, we must ask what, specifically, was the expected and explicitly stated result before an accurate answer can be provided, as unstated goals are equivalent to nonexistent goals. Due to the reticent nature that is Capricorn, we are not surprised to learn that no explicate statements have been articulated nor goals expressed. Therefore, any value judgments that have been applied throughout my life must be alien, that is, these valuations are not organic and must have their origins in other people's experiences, expectations, assumptions and suppositions, from "families, friends, and enemies" and not from my experiences and my expectations. Paradoxically, as my experiences increased, my expectations continually decreased. To borrow from the terminology of economics, this phenomenon of declining personal expectations would be described as the Law of Diminishing Returns. ​

​​"Feel no sorrow, feel no shame​Come tomorrow, feel no pain."

"Goodbye Stranger "​Supertramp

​"Just what you want to be,​you will be in the end..."​"Nights in White Satin"​The Moody Blues​